U.S., Iraq blacklist Islamic State finance official: U.S. Treasury

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Iraq have banished a senior Islamic State finance official from their financial systems, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Treasury named Salim Mustafa Muhammad al-Mansur, a finance official for the Islamic militant group, as a “specially designated global terrorist,” a move that freezes any property he might have in the United States and bars Americans from dealing with him.

Iraq’s government also barred Mansur from its financial system and froze any assets under its jurisdiction, Treasury said. Islamic State, also called ISIS, seized large swathes of Iraq in 2014 in a bid to establish an Islamic “caliphate,” but has since lost territory in a U.S.-backed campaign against the group.

“Treasury continues to work in close collaboration with the Government of Iraq to dismantle ISIS financial networks both inside and outside of ISIS-controlled territory,” said John E. Smith, director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces sanctions.

In 2014, Mansur helped transfer hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dinars to Islamic State in Mosul, and then helped launder and transfer money for the group and sold oil it extracted from Iraq and Syria, Treasury said.

As of early this year, Mansur had moved to Turkey but was still serving as an Islamic State finance official for Mosul, Iraq, Treasury said.